Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 208

21 Days Theory – Quick Series Review

’21 Days Theory’ is a 2022 Thai romantic drama directed by Choi Sittichai Chutsiri about two protagonists who are simply called Q and X. Tee Khunakorn Sunatham plays Q, a ‘handsome’ student who tries to do his best at everything, but always misses what he wants by a whisker. When his popular classmate X (Bever Patsapon Jansuppakitkun) challenges him to get campus celebrity Mook to take him to an event in 21 days, Q takes up the bet. This little game between the two students leads to a very random and predictable story that’s spread over four episodes.

Aesthetically, ’21 Days Theory’ looks fluffy and bright, with a lot of good-looking people on the cast. However, their acting skills a little suspect, with nobody standing out with their performance. A large part of blame stands with the weak script, which is filled with silly moments and relationship progressions that are too abrupt. Q’s friendship with his two close classmates is a lot more entertaining and sweet versus his romantic life.

With just four episodes to squeeze in everything, a lot of stuff is just weird. For example, the paranoia displayed by Q’s mother over his blooming friendship with X. The two just hang out like regular students, but the mom starts worrying about her son’s preferences in just a few days of seeing him with a new friend. The writers balance out her inherent homophobia by having a character educate her about how life can be just as good for those who don’t believe in heteronormativity. Regardless, the rushed sub-plot involving the mother to address parental issues was out of place in the high-school themed series. I kind of lost interest by episode three in the show and saw the last episode only out of curiosity – to see how they wrap up the show.

It’s a 5/10 from me.

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Ep 79 – Five Graphic Novel Adaptations to Read If You Don’t Have Time For Long Form

Roots – Graphic Novel Review

‘Roots’ by Tara O’Connor is a graphic novel memoir about ‘finding yourself’. At 27, comic book artist Tara finds herself divorced and unable to come to terms with her new status. So decides to fly to Ireland to research on her family tree and write about her roots. But she finds out very little about her ancestors, but finds love and inspiration to live her life to the fullest again.

The artwork is simple and nice, but fails to do justice to all the traveling/exploring Tara does while abroad. Despite being an illustrated book, readers have to rely on Tara’s narration in the text to believe the view she has drawn is breathtaking. Perhaps the creator should’ve opted for a colored version, or the art should’ve been more detailed for us to get a better sense of where she is. The plain black and white art would have worked if there was more story.

Honestly, after a point I didn’t know why I had to care about what’s happening in Tara’s life, it was just mundane and uninteresting. ‘Roots’ feels like it’s for a very specific demographic – people who know Tara.

It’s a 2/5 from me.

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Listen to Episode 80 – 10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #15thEdition

‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’ Review

Three 90s kids had the brilliant idea of watching the 2022 movie ‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’ in 4DX, so it turned out to be literal roller coaster experience, because the seats kept moving, even when there was no need. Did that make the film any less entertaining and nostalgic? Not really. It was fun, despite the bumpy ride.

Directed by Tetsuro Kodama, the animation isn’t great, but loyal fans would perhaps be too busy enjoying watching their favorite characters fighting the bad guys to care. A quick recap at the beginning helps non-fans get a basic drift of the story too, so you don’t have to worry about never having seen the animated series to understand what’s going on. Although, the film is definitely meant to draw in old fans, rather than create a new following. Why else would you still have Masako Nozawa still voicing Goku?

Scripted by Akira Toriyama, Tetsuro Kodama’s Dragon Ball movie isn’t ambitious in scale, nor does it have the intensity of emotions some of the major face-offs in the series did. A nefarious organization called ‘Red Ribbon Army’ defeated by Goku is resuscitated for the film, complete with a new boss who hires a talented scientist called Dr Hedo to make powerful droids that can wipe out Saiyans. It’s up to Piccolo to investigate what the villains are up to and find a way to stop them.

The character design for Dr Hedo stands out against the rest of the characters, he is a rotund little genius, who looks more like Pugsley Addams from ‘The Addams Family’, than someone from the Dragon Ball universe. In-fact, super-hero enthusiasts will be able to detect a lot of callbacks and allusions to not just older DBZ episodes, but also to other famous fictional onscreen characters. With a 1 hr 40 minutes runtime, the film is pacy, with just the right amount of laughs, and a whole pack of familiar faces that will keep fans invested till the end.

It’s a 7.5/10 from me.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Review

Three 90s kids had the brilliant idea of watching the 2022 movie ‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’ in 4DX, so it turned out to be literal roller coaster experience, because the seats kept moving, even when there was no need. Did that make the film any less entertaining and nostalgic? Not really. It was fun, despite the bumpy ride.

Directed by Tetsuro Kodama, the animation isn’t great, but loyal fans would perhaps be too busy enjoying watching their favorite characters fighting the bad guys to care. A quick recap at the beginning helps non-fans get a basic drift of the story too, so you don’t have to worry about never having seen the animated series to understand what’s going on. Although, the film is definitely meant to draw in old fans, rather than create a new following. Why else would you still have Masako Nozawa still voicing Goku?

Scripted by Akira Toriyama, Tetsuro Kodama’s Dragon Ball movie isn’t ambitious in scale, nor does it have the intensity of emotions some of the major face-offs in the series did. A nefarious organization called ‘Red Ribbon Army’ defeated by Goku is resuscitated for the film, complete with a new boss who hires a talented scientist called Dr Hedo to make powerful droids that can wipe out Saiyans. It’s up to Piccolo to investigate what the villains are up to and find a way to stop them.

The character design for Dr Hedo stands out against the rest of the characters, he is a rotund little genius, who looks more like Pugsley Addams from ‘The Addams Family’, than someone from the Dragon Ball universe. In-fact, super-hero enthusiasts will be able to detect a lot of callbacks and allusions to not just older DBZ episodes, but also to other famous fictional onscreen characters. With a 1 hr 40 minutes runtime, the film is pacy, with just the right amount of laughs, and a whole pack of familiar faces that will keep fans invested till the end.

It’s a 7.5/10 from me.

‘King Richard’ Should’ve Crowned The Girls

This isn’t really a review, since it’s been a while since the Will Smith movie ‘King Richard’ came out and he’s made enough noise for himself with the Oscar slap. That’s literally the second thing that pops up on ‘auto suggest’ when you search for ‘Will Smith Oscar’. You don’t even have to complete the phrase. The only thing most people will now associate with ‘King Richard’ is that slap. Too bad, because when I was done watching the film, all I thought was that the girls who played Venus and Serena Williams deserved a lot more applause than Smith. The ‘I Am Legend’ actor obviously had a lot more screen-time, since the plot’s main focus was the ‘man behind Tennis legends’.

Sure, maybe if it had not been for their father’s persistence and obsession with making his daughter tennis superstars, they wouldn’t have been the global icons they are today. But, there are enough obsessive parents around the world, but very few manage to make a Serena Williams out of their kid. So it feels like ‘King Richard’ gives a little too much credit to the dad for the sisters’ success and not enough to the women.

Demi Singleton and Saniyya Sidney are low key brilliant as Serena and Venus, playing tennis like total pros through the film. It wasn’t as much as Smith’s acting, but the script that give him so much attention, that it was inevitable a star of his stature to take home some of the biggest awards. An Academy Award no less. The leading ladies on the other hand landed a few wins, but not close enough to an Oscar repute obviously. Although, in all honesty, Sidney and Singleton didn’t have powerful roles or enough on-screen space to give cathartic performances. But in a world where Will Smith truly deserved an Oscar for the lead role, the girls would’ve won one it for their supporting parts too.

They Called Us Enemy Review – Gripping

Whenever there is war, a terrible number of innocents always suffer, but few expect to be incarcerated by their own country for political brownie points. George Takei in his graphic novel memoir talks about his experiences at an internment camp as a young boy. His family members were among the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were evicted from their homes and forced to live in camps after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The anger against the Japanese had to be directed somewhere, and politicians knew just who.

Better known to Star Trek fans as Hikaru Sulu, Takei was only a child in the 1940s, so his recollection of his time behind barbed wires are innocent. For example, little Takei thought it would be an adventure to sleep in stinky horse stalls, only his parents knew the humiliation of living in a space still soiled with the smell of manure. Spread over 200 pages, ‘They Called Us Enemy’ tells an important chapter of World War II that one won’t find in History text books. And Takei couldn’t have picked a better format to tell his and his family’s story.

While Takei has co-written his memoir with Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, it’s the artwork by Harmony Becker which really breathes life to a painful chapter of Japanese-American history. While the art is in black-and-white, it has a grainy texture that lends a news-journal like touch to the tale. Apart from the four years he spent as a child at two different camps, Takei also takes readers through heated debateshis father as teen while trying to untangle their complicated hurtful past.

Since bulk of ‘They Called Us Enemy’ is told through the lens of a young boy, it captures the ugly nature of war in a way an adult narrator cannot. Despite never being tragic, horrifying or gut-wrenching, the book still manages to enlighten readers who’ve never lived through war just how terrifying its consequences can be. You might think you have nothing to do with two nations going against each other, until soldiers turn up at your door, asking you to abandon your home and life as you knew it. It’s a graphic novel worth adding to your shelf.

It’s a 4/5 from me.

My Secret Love – Quick Review

‘My Secret Love’ is the kind of series that could’ve been wrapped up within 6-8 episodes, but for some reason, despite having no story to tell, the makers drag it for 12 episodes and makes it a complete snooze-fest. The 2022 series featuring multiple couples, tells the story of two group of college students, one is a mildly popular trio that makes prank videos, the other is a nerdy clique of three cute guys. Interestingly, the six end up being three couples by the end of the show. And not so interestingly – the lead pair is the most boring of the lot.

Directed by Zaii Nattamon Yimyam, ‘My Secret Love’ is fun and cute-sy in the first few episodes, but soon gets annoying and mundane. I lost complete interest by episode 9 but took my time and did watch the last three episodes to just see how things end. Daniel Cheng Yu Chang and Bew Sitthikarn Akkarapolawat as Lee and Park have the best chemistry of the four couples we see through the show, they also have a believable relationship trajectory – they’ve been dating for over seven years and are completely comfortable around each other.

The central sub-plot that drives the main romantic plot was plain bizarre and stupid – the chancellor of the college forces two good-looking students – Kim (Earth Teerapat) and Mek (Fluk Chatchawan) – to pretend to be a couple and make videos to make the college’s YouTube channel popular. It’s a ridiculous take on the whole ‘shipping’ business and how even older adults can perhaps take things too far. But for an educator to do so was pushing boundaries. As the story progresses, the Chancellor is completely forgotten, although her ‘fake ship’ turns into a real one. But Earth and Mek have very little chemistry and don’t make too much sense together.

Overall, ‘My Secret Love’ is a forgettable series, with the usual cliches and romantic tropes. It’s a 5/10 from me.

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Listen to Episode 80 – 10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #15thEdition

Ballad For Sophie Review: Beautiful!

First published in September 2020, the graphic novel ‘Ballad For Sophie’ by Filipe Melos, Juan Cavia is a beautiful blend of old classical charms and modern decadence. It’s been a while since a book managed to emotionally move me so much. The work is a powerful combination of art and music, two things very close to my heart, echoed wondrously in all their highs and lows.

The story follows Sophie, a young journalist she hopes to interview eccentric music legend Julien Dubois, but he shoos her away within seconds of her arrival. Adamant on getting her story on the reclusive star, Sophie camps out at his mansion’s door and wins over the old man’s time. Readers then get a movie like tale of two great musicians – one of the rich Dubois who’s pushed hard to be a great pianist, the other of the poor but naturally gifted Francois Samson. From their first meet as two little boys, to their youth through World War II, to the pinnacle for their fame as two very different kind of musicians; Dubois tells Sophie an incredible tale (even if familiar in parts) of his life and how his brilliant peer was always a haunting influence in his life.

The artwork draws you into Sophie’s world from page one, it’s vibrant, vivid and gives of a slight watercolors mixed with crayons texture. In other words, it’s kind of dreamy to look at. I love how the mood and palette of the panels keep changing according to the scene at hand. There’s a lot of yellow and some of the color combinations are very Andy Warhol like, they look like pop-art, but with more muted tones. There’s a touch of fantasy to the plot, owing to the fact that Dubois recalls his teacher to be a goat, so you have a somberly dressed gentleman with a goat-head often appearing through the graphic novel.

‘Ballad For Sophie’ delves into tested tropes, but the artwork gives them a dash of life that mere wordy novels can’t easily achieve. Sophie is only a secondary protagonist, it’s the eccentric reclusive Pianist/Showman Dubois who’s the flawed hero of this tale. A man forced to live his mother’s dreams, bitter through his life for not possessing the kind of talents some can only be ‘born with’. His story is quite typical of musical superstars of the 70s, filled with fame, money, sex and drugs. And that one passionate love affair which doesn’t last. It ends well for the rare few.

The climax had a sneaky little emotional twist, but even without the dramatic revelation at the end, the graphic novel has a beautiful, poignant climax. If you love music and art, you must read this. I loved loved loved it. It’s a 5/5 from me. The book is available on Kindle Unlimited.

The Sandman’s Cats/Calliope Episode Review

Netflix dropped a special two-story episode of ‘The Sandman’ and in a bigger surprise – one of them was animated. Titled ‘Dream of a Thousand Cats’, the animated part of the episode was intriguing, mysterious and fascinating. The artwork was rudimentary, quite reminiscent of the works of Richard Linklater, however he uses rotoscoping for his animated films, which was clearly not the technique used in Sandman.

‘Dream of a Thousand Cats’ does a great job of explaining one of the most important concepts of ‘The Sandman’ universe – the dreams have the power to shape reality. So what if cats really ruled the world? I had hoped for a more concrete climax, instead, the story abruptly changes and the live-action version of the series take over. The other half of the episode titled ‘Calliope’ featuring the mythical Greek Goddess of the same name was a mixed bag. Melissanthi Mahut plays Calliope, one of the seven Greek Muses, who finds herself bound to a human, trapped in the mortal world against her wishes. Left with no choice, she wonders if she could seek Morpheus’ help, but little does she know that the Dream Lord is suffering a similar fate…

‘Calliope’ was a tough watch, the plot about a woman – a Goddess no less – being exploited by mortal men was disturbing. While even Morpheus is under a similar predicament, at least he wasn’t ravaged by his captors. Gaiman uses bizarre logic to convince viewers (readers in the comics) that she is ‘lawfully’ bound to a man and that nobody can do much to intervene. Regardless, his incorporation of Greek mythology to spin a tale on human greed is interesting.

The actors do a commendable job, Arthur Darvill is despicable as author Richard Madoc, who keeps Calliope under lock & key for inspiration and fame. While in the first half of the episode, Morpheus appears as a cat himself, Tom Sturridge gets to make an appearance in the second half and displays an emotional side to his character. Overall, the bonus episode was quite entertaining.

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Listen to Episode 80 – 10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #15thEdition

Anything’s Possible Review – Awkward But Sweet

With an ambitious sounding title, Billy Porter marks his directorial debut with the 2022 movie ‘Anything’s Possible’. And while the movie isn’t as wild or dramatic as one might expect it to be, it’s got all the right ingredients of a typical mainstream teen romance, the only unique addition being the trans protagonist.

Plot overview – Eva Reign, plays Kelsa, who runs a small YouTube channel talking about her life as a trans teenager and how romance is the last thing on her mind. However, when the cute Khal (Abubakr Ali) begins to develop a crush on Kelsa, things get challenging because her best-friend also likes him. So yes, we do have the same old ‘best friends falling out over the same guy’ conflict as one of the central themes.

Both Eva Reign and Abubakr Ali are playing romantic leads in a film for the first time, but they have a casual relaxed energy through the runtime and deliver measured performances. Reign felt a little too mature for a high-school senior and maybe a college setting would’ve worked better for the story. Since it’s a romantic drama, the plot doesn’t dwell too deeply on the challenges of being a trans teen. But Porter and team do touch upon upon some common issues and prejudice trans youth face, and how even a supportive family member can fail to see things from their point of view.

Visually, ‘Anything’s Possible’ has a colorful summer vibe, with a very pleasing color palette. Kelsa and Khal aren’t the ‘loud, crazy, party’ type of kids, so it was refreshing to see the two go to a conservatory/botanical garden for their first date. The lead couple is quite awkward in comparison to usual leads in romantic films, but given their unique personalities and situation, it works for the story. I quite loved Kelsa’s loud and bold clothing choices and how she doesn’t try to be invisible in school just because she is trans.

For large parts, you know the makers are trying their best to be ‘cool’, but the script remains quite generic and could’ve used more imagination. Regardless, it’s an evenly paced film which made for an entertaining watch.

It’s a 6.5/10 from me. You can stream it on Amazon Prime Video.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

Listen to Episode 80 – 10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #15thEdition